Hello TV viewer. Welcome to another week of “Thank goodness there’s cable!”
I mentioned this week’s must watch shows in last week’s column. Showtime has decided that the perfect way to spend our Monday nights is with some good old fashioned sex and drugs (well, drugs and sex if you look at the order of airing). Weeds and Secret Diary of a Call Girl both premiere on Monday. The former I’ve been looking forward to and I’m hoping the latter is good since Showtime has decided to put them back-to-back.
Some of you reading this may also be shell shocked after last Friday’s episode of Battlestar Galactica and I’m right there with you. The episode titled “Revelations’ was filled with just that. The humans finally found out who the four of the Final Five Cylons were that were living among them, a tense hostage situation ended with a peaceful resolution, and the fleet finally found what appeared to be Earth (although not at all what they, or we, expected).
I admit that I’ve written very little about this season of Galactica because I didn’t really understand sometimes where the show was going. After last week’s episode I see that step-by-step we were being brought to the final moments of this episode which, in line with the entire tone of the show, was both dark and dismal after setting us up with a brief glimpse of joy and celebration. Unlike those aboard the ship I knew that what I was seeing couldn’t end well, and even though I knew it what I saw wasn’t any less jarring.
Another stand out moment of the episode is the rapid decent of Olmos’ Adama after the revelation that Saul Tigh was in fact a Cylon. He went into every bit of destructive behavior we’ve seen from every other character as the foundation of his world seemed to crumble beneath him. Even more compelling to me is that, after the fact, Saul Tigh still stood his ground as a man rather than machine and was willing to give up everything for Galactica and humanity (nicely echoing his sentiment from last season’s finale).
The only let down of the entire episode was that it ended and we have to wait until 2009 to see the final season of this amazing show (although there is potentially another TV movie that will be aired prior to the end of this year). Between waiting for this and LOST the next year is going to seem pretty darn long.
Now it’s time to look at the mere table scraps that television is offering us from it’s buffet of choices.
MONDAY
SCIFI – 9:00 PM & 10:00PM: Two of the three episode of Star Trek:The Next Generation are again examples of why this was one of the greater shows on television. Yesterday’s Enterprise gives us a glimpse of a completely different world when the Enterprise 1701-C comes through a time rift prior to making its historical sacrifice. Sarek brings us Spock’s dad during a mental decline, and also brings us some fine acting from Patrick Stewart during the scene where he becomes the vessel for Sarek’s emotions. Yes, I’m a nerd and I’m going to keep this up.
HBO – 9:00 PM: Greg Whitley’s documentary Resolved takes a look at the competitive world of high school debates.
A&E – 10:00 PM: Children who have been haunted are put together to share their stories and fears in Psychic Kids:Children of the Paranormal.
SHO – 10:00 PM: As mentioned above, it’s Weeds and Secret Diary of a Call Girl.
TUESDAY
AMC – 8:00 PM: Another night of back-to-back showings that are wonderfully nostalgic. Enjoy what comedy used to be at 8 with Animal House and then bask in the late 60’s camp of Planet of the Apes. If these aren’t to your liking maybe instead you might like…
CMTV – 8:00 PM: Watch the one that started it all, National Lampoon’s Vacation, and by the end you should be whistling Zippity Doo Da from your… well, watch and you’ll see.
FX – 10:00 PM: Tonight on 30 Days an avid hunter works with PETA. Too bad they couldn’t get Ted Nugent.
WEDNESDAY
truTV – 8:00 PM: The producers of Ice Road Truckers and Deadliest Catch try to infuse us with more testosterone with a show following West Texas Oil Rig workers in Black Gold.
HIST – 9:00 PM: On MonsterQuest tonight they are looking for a Bigfoot like nest making creature named The Ohio Grassman. Sounds more like a character you’d find on Weeds to me.
TBS – 10:00 PM: New episodes tonight of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne. I’ve never watched it, but at least it is new.
THURSDAY
ANIMAL PLANET – 8:00 PM: The late Timothy Treadwell‘s footage is cut together to present us the Alaskan bears as seen through his eyes in The Grizzly Diaries. Knowing what happened to Treadwell makes this a bitter sweet watch. Just don’t follow it up with Grizzly Man.
SCIFI – 9:00 PM: Tonight you can compare and contrast by taking in the Ang Lee directed The Hulk. It’s like night and day when compared to the current big screen version but I have to admit that I kinda like it.
SHO – 10:00 PM: Penn & Teller are back with their Showtime original series Bulls—! Tonight the angry and mute magician’s take on feminists. This can’t end well.
FRIDAY
FOX- 8:00 PM: Want to compare and contrast again? If you took in the original Planet of the Apes than you can now watch the Tim Burton remake starring Mark Wahlberg that has the most perplexing ending to come along in quite a while. Save yourself the time and tune in for the last ten minutes and still try to reason it out. Won’t work.
TNT – 8:00 PM: Lousy remake night continues with the Adam Sandler version of The Longest Yard.
SATURDAY
ABC – 8:00 PM: I don’t know what a Jonas Brother is but you can watch the Disney Channel original picture Camp Rock without having the Disney Channel. If you have a kid that is in to Hannah Montana this is probably a solid bet.
Oxygen – 8:00 PM: I was pleasantly surprised by the film About a Boy. This may very well be the first time I’m tempted to watch anything on the Oxygen channel.
BRAVO – 8:00 PM: Witness the most shocking first day on the job ever in Training Day.
SUNDAY
A&E – 10:00 PM: Tonight is the return of the reality show The Two Coreys. Haim is determined to mend both his career and friendship with Feldman back on track. I can’t wait to see them go to couples therapy.
SPIKE – 10:00 PM: It’s a celebration of sports, sweat and testosterone with the Guys Choice Awards. Find out what guys think is better: F’ing Matt Damon or F’ing Ben Affleck. No really, this was one of the choices!
– Will Wilkins‘ love of Star Trek got him banned form voting in the Guys Choice Awards.
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